Research Initiative:
Food Security
How do you feed the world when food demand could double in the next 40 years?
From seed banks to sediment cores, scientific collections spanning millennia illustrate the challenge of food security. How can collections from varied disciplines help protect the food supply for our growing population?
- Main Partner: USDA, National Agriculture Library | Stressors and Drivers of Food Security: Evidence from Scientific Collections
In a world where our food needs are expected to increase drastically as populations grow, scientists and policymakers alike need new and creative tools to ensure food security.
Sediment cores that chronicle past climate conditions may also contain pollen grains from ancient crops. Pest and pollinator collections in natural history museums are vital resources for ongoing research on plant protection and increased production. New technology has enabled us to apply novel molecular techniques to old specimens and expand the scope of research beyond the lab or the museum.
SciColl and USDA held a symposium, “Stressors and Drivers of Food Security: Evidence from Scientific Collections,” that engaged researchers from anthropology, archaeology, earth sciences, biodiversity, agriculture, and other fields in discussions examining food supplies throughout human history. Discussions of new partnerships, networks, and organizational behavior illustrated how collections are uniquely suited to support ongoing and future research.
Major Partners: U.S. Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) develops and executes policy on agriculture, food, natural resources, rural development, and nutrition. It works to promote economic innovation and agriculture to address food security needs both in the United States and around the world.
The USDA’s National Agriculture Library (NAL) is one of four national libraries of the United States and houses one of the world's largest collections devoted to agriculture and its related sciences. NAL holds more than 3.5 million items covering all aspects of agriculture and related sciences. The depth and richness of the collection make it a unique resource, with many materials not available anywhere else in the world.
Two-day workshop, 19-21 September 2016, USDA National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD
In partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SciColl convened a symposium at the National Agriculture Library in Beltsville, MD. Experts in various disciplines examined interdisciplinary scientific collections as a critical resource for food security research. Find the symposium presentations, summaries and other products here.
USDA National Agriculture Library, Beltsville, MD, September 19-21 2016
Stressors and Drivers of Food Security: Evidence from Scientific Collections
Day 1: Monday, 19 September 2016
- 12:00 Registration
- 13:00 Welcome and Introductions
- Welcome: Paul Wester, Director, National Agriculture Library
- SciColl Introduction: David Schindel, Chairman, SciColl Executive Board
- Meeting Global Food Security Challenges: Catherine Woteki, Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, USDA
- 13:45 Session 1: Keynotes
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David Inouye, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland and Principal Investigator at
the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
How can collections and field studies of pollinators foster food security? -
Kristen Gremillion, Professor at the Ohio State University
Ancient Crops, Archaeological Collections, and Food Security - 15:30 Coffee Break
- 16:00 Session 2: Collections Lightning Talks
- Representatives from different scientific collections will give short presentations on their repositories and specimens
- Peter Bretting, USDA National Plant Germplasm System
- Márcia Maués, Embrapa Entomological Collections
- Grace Costantino, Biodiversity Heritage Library
- Maxine Levin, USDA/NRCS Soil Sample Archive
- Kālewa Correa, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
- John Dickie, Kew Millenium Seed Bank
- Kevin McCluskey, U.S. Culture Collection Network
- David Chitwood, USDA Nematode Collection
- Jill Demers, USDA National Fungus Collection
- Patricia Mergen, Botanic Garden Meise
- George Ziobro, FDA
- 17:30 Adjourn
Day 2: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Sessions 3-6 were devoted to presentations about different research challenges, followed by commentaries and discussion by panelists representing different collection domains. The focus was on how different collection types could contribute to research.
- 9:00 Session 3: Varieties of Food
-
Rod Page, University of Glasgow
Unknown knowns, long tails, and long data -
Ari Novy, US Botanic Garden
Feeding a Hungry Planet: The Importance of Collections and Outreach at Botanic Gardens - 9:30 Panel Discussion: Martin Kalfatovic (Moderator), Rod Page, Ari Novy, Patricia Mergen, Savi Natarajan
- 10:00 Q&A, group discussion
- 10:30 Coffee Break
- 11:00 Session 4: Biological Stressors and Aides.
-
Kevin McCluskey, Kansas State University
Genome analysis for mutant characterization in a model plant-associated fungus at the Fungal Genetics Stock Center - Márcia Maués, Embrapa: Pollinators & Food Security: Risks and Opportunities
- 11:30 Panel Discussion: Rosalind James (Moderator), Kevin McCluskey, Márcia Maués, Steve Young, Lisa Castlebury
- 12:00 Q&A, group discussion
- 12:30 Lunch
- 13:30 Session 5: Environmental Stressors and Benefits
- Maxine Levin, USDA/NRCS: Soil Capability -- Environmental Stressors and Benefits
- Edna Makule, Nelson Mandela African Institute for Science and Technology: Strategies to reduce postharvest losses of seasonal fruits in Tanzania
- 14:00 Panel discussion: Faith Bartz Tarr (Moderator), Maxine Levin, Edna Makule, Muni Muniappan, John Dickie, Stephanie Yarwood
- 14:30 Q&A, group discussion
- 15:00 Coffee Break
- 15:30 Session 6: Feeding the 10 Billion.
- Megan Davis, FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute: Aquaculture: A Savior for Global Food Security
- Cyndy Parr, USDA NAL: Machine-readable open data for food security research
- Akwasi Asamoah, University of Exeter: How may resilient strategies and edaphic characteristic be associated?
- Daniel Debouk, International Center for Tropical Agriculture: Correlation between width of diversity in crop collections and numbers of users for decades
- 16:30 Q&A, group discussion: Anne Marie Thro (Moderator)
- 17:00 Adjourn
Day 3: Wednesday, 21 September 2016
- 9:00 Session 7 Participants separated into break-out groups to discuss:
-
New strategies for increasing the use and impact of collections and associated databases for food security research
- Grace Costantino
- Rod Page
- Kris Gremillion
- Shannon Dominick
- Savi Natarajan
- Jill Demers
- Muni Muniappan
- Akwasi Asamoah
-
Case studies that exemplify cross-cutting and forward-thinking uses of collections and
associated databases for food security research
- Rosalind James
- David Inouye
- John Dickie
- Daniel Debouck
- Kristina Hill
- Maxine Levin
- George Ziobro
- Zafar Handoo
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Major recommendations for the research and collections communities, funding agencies,
and/or networks (such as SciColl)
- Cyndy Parr
- Ari Novy
- Kevin Hackett
- Ann Marie Thro
- Marcia Maues
- Patricia Mergen
- Martin Kalfatovic
- Edna Makule
- 10:30 Coffee Break
- 11:00 Discussion & Next Steps: Cyndy Parr, Moderator
- Break-out group summaries: Reports from each break-out group will be compiled into one set of new strategies and case study examples.
- Recommendations: What new capabilities, best practices and collaborations should be set as new goals for collections and researchers?
- Priorities: Where should resources and efforts be focused in the near-term, mid-term, and long-term?
- Action items: What should we do in the near-term, mid-term, and long-term to pursue these goals?
- 12:30 Adjourn
- 13:00 Collections Tours
- US National Aphid Collection & US National Mites Collection
- NAL Library and Special Collections
Contact Information
Interested in Food Security? Please e-mail us. And sign up on our mailing list to receive the latest updates!
Scientific Collections and Environmental Change
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Schedule
- 16.10 Unlocking Evidence: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change Ellinor Michel & Eileen Graham EC1
- 16.25 TBD Mark Spencer EC2
- 16.40 DOAD, NODE and NANODe: integrating ostracod collections and databases for environmental change research applications David J. Horne & Judith Price EC3
- 16.55 Investigating the impact of late Quaternary environmental changes using ancient DNA from collared lemming Selina Brace, Eleftheria Palkopoulou, Love Dalén, John Stewart & Ian Barnes EC4
- 17.10 Forgotten molecules, long lost records Matthew Collins EC5
- 17.30 Discussing Evidence: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change - Panel Discussion and Audience Participation Eileen Graham & Ellinor Michel EC6
#didyouknow...
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds more than 860,000 samples from almost every country in the world -- and yet is nowhere near capacity at 2.5 billion seeds.
...?